Safe keeping of a home or business is a primary concern for the occupants thereof. Business offices are frequently broken into where computers, facsimile machines, telephones and the like equipment can be easily resold. It is also well known that dwellings are frequently burglarized causing the occupants fear and grief to find precious heirlooms stolen as well as televisions, stereos, cameras, and so forth taken from their lawful premises.
For these reasons elaborate alarm systems have been developed providing the occupant with a secure feeling that the premises are being guarded. A problem with the security of homes and businesses is the reliance on the human interface which is required to enable or disable the device. Despite the advances in alarm systems and locking mechanisms, unless the security device is enabled it is worthless. Further, should the occupant provide a potential burglar with the device necessary for unlocking the security mechanism, there is no security made possible by any device.
Thus, a primary level of security remains the conventional mechanical lock found on most every door that requires security. Typically the lock consists of a door handle with an integrated key lock requiring the occupant to unlock the door handle before the door can be opened. Another key lock for doors is commonly referred to as a dead bolt lock consisting of a solid bolt that engages a door jam. Should a person leave a key in a lock, the key becomes the unlocking mechanism, and if placed in the wrong hands has dire consequences. Statistics show that this event is very common and is the preferred method of potential burglars so as to avoid the need to defeat an alarm that is beyond the thieves + capability.
Occupants to a home or business frequently leave their keys in the locking mechanism in their haste to enter the dwelling. For instance, it is not uncommon for a person to attempt to carry groceries into a home leaving the keys in the door lock until they have set down the groceries and subsequently forgetting to retrieve the keys. In this event, a potential thief can simply grab the keys and use them later to gain uninhibited access to the dwelling. Similarly, a worker who opens an office can easily leave their keys in the door while they prepare for the morning's business. Again, a potential thief can easily grab the keys and use them later. A clever thief has even been known to make a copy of the key and return the key to a conspicuous location so that the rightful owner believes they have simply misplaced the keys and thus does nothing further to rectify their security breach. If the occupant of the dwelling forgets the keys they may simply think they have misplaced them and will duplicate keys as their replacement. Even if the rightful owner of the stolen keys realizes that they are stolen, they may not believe it is worth the expense to change all the locks that are associated with the lost keys. For example, a key ring may include keys to a person's home, office, automobile, neighbor's home, parents' home, boat, and so forth. A person may not be able to afford to quickly change every lock at every location. They may further avoid telling the person whose key was in their possession that their key was stolen, leaving the entrusting persons susceptible to home invasion.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a device capable of reminding the owner of keys that they remain within the locking mechanism.